FORMER Sacred Heart head teacher John Summerfield is appealing against the size of his fine for breaching health and safety regulations.

Solicitors acting on behalf of Summerfield say financial orders imposed on him were “manifestly excessive”.

Mr Summerfield, of Crosby, was fined £20,000 and was ordered to pay back £22,708 in court costs at Liverpool Crown Court in October after he was found guilty of failing to take reasonable care for the safety of his students after a pupil fell through a skylight and fractured his skull.

Some of the draft grounds of appeal cited include that he had provided pupils with “some degree of warning in relation to the domed skylight” and told them “not to be messing near the skylight”. It was also noted that all of the students were “at least 18 years of age”.

In the submissions, it is stated that the incident was Mr Summerfield’s “only lapse in 42 years in the teaching profession” and previous warnings were given.

And as the case came to court he had retired from his post and had by the time of the trial and sentence received a capital sum due to that retirement. Therefore he had the means available to meet any anticipated financial penalty and the judge decided the matter should be disposed by financial penalty.

Solicitors also argue there was a clear statement made by the judge that he was not minded to order costs against the defendant personally and wanted reassurances that he was not covered by other parties for those costs.

But at the date of sentence those matters were put aside. The document reads the costs order was “wrong in principle”.

The 64-year-old must pay back the money by April, but today he told the Herald : “I haven’t got the money to pay it back.

“ I have got what I have from my lump sum. I’ll have to take out a bridging loan.

“There needs to be sufficient cause for there to be an appeal. It could be a half hour job and it is with some judges.

“It’s at the second highest court in the land in London. They might be a second hearing which I’ll go down to. It will be decided if it’s on the heavy side.

“I could have appealed the verdict but I just could not cope anymore. I was putting my family through it and no one was going to stand with me.

“I’m not appealing the sentence. It’s to get the £42,000 reduced. When I got the fine it was like it wasn't really happening. I was told if I plead guilty I would pay back £3,000.

“I said I can’t plead guilty because I don’t feel guilty. When the health and safety said they were going to prosecute me I couldn’t believe it.”

Added to his financial woes was a £30,00 debt he was partly found liable for after St Mary’s Old Boys Club in Crosby village had not paid back thousands of pounds in unpaid rent.

Mr Summerfield said he stood down from the role as trustee in 2004, but had signed the lease 12 months earlier, making him liable for unpaid rent for the next five years.

He said: “Me and another trustee have paid back £15,000 (£7,500 each). I have written to the life members of the club last week. I’ve had four responses with cheques amounting to £500, which is quite good so far.”

The Crosby community has so far raised £3,000 to help the popular grandad pay back the fine.

And he has been left startled by people’s kindness and said: “I’m very humbled by people doing something about it for me. It’s unbelievable really. I'm quite gobsmacked. I don’t know everything about it (the campaign). I have never been on Facebook and I'm not buying newspapers.

“I have been stopped in Sainsbury’s and people have intimated what’s happening.

“Two things I know for certain is that two girls are trying to get a ‘fun run’ in May after they came around with their dad and asked can we do it for you. I said they could do whatever they liked.

“The Sacré Coeur lads are doing a retirement dinner for me (on February 12). Sacré Coeur was the football club that I started in 1986. The money from the dinner will go to the fund.

“It makes you feel valued. Some people make you feel not very valued. I could name people but I'm not going to.

“Certain groups should have got more involved but they didn’t. All the people that should’ve supported me have left me hanging dry.

“After 42 years of your life you would think that certain groups should help you, but they haven’t been there.